Remaining true to artisanal methods of production, the family has fundamentally transformed Grappa and made it a symbol of the Italian art of living.

The first thing you notice when meeting the Nonino family is its incredible energy. An energy so powerful that it feels like being drawn into a whirlwind. After a few minutes, you realize that it is not energy that animates them, it is ideas. Ideas so advanced that you cannot help feeling a step behind, always trying to catch up. People will tell you that meeting the Noninos changed their lives forever, that encountering this legendary family is a transformational experience.

Iconic and quintessentially Super-Tuscan yet deeply attached to the roots and the territory where it originates.

An ancient Japanese proverb says, “the meeting between two persons is where everything begins.” It is also how the extraordinary story of Luce came to be, a story that we had the privilege to experience through a historical tasting going back to 1997 of this Iconic wine hosted by Lamberto Frescobaldi at the magnificent Casa degli Atellani in Milan....

At the HK Wine Fair last month, I began a new series of wine courses that I call "Taste For Pleasure". Here, the focus is obviously on pleasure, but I want to tell stories about the wines so that participants can relate to the emotions of the winemakers, the beauty of his region and the traditions and culture that invariably influence the final style and quality of the wine.

At the Hong Kong Wine Fair earlier in November, we presented a series of 15 tastings on the beautiful wines of #Italy. During 3 masterclasses held each day of the fair, we discovered 18 wonderful wines of Franciacorta.

I am not shy to admit that, until last April, my love affair with Nebbiolo, the grape responsible for the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco, was not on solid grounds. But, a meeting with ArPePe's Isabella Pelizzatti Perego at Vinitaly in Verona changed that forever...

A work in progress, these are notes gathered during my study of the excellent & award winning book by Ian D'Agata on Native Grapes of Italy (http://amzn.to/1QKvmrC). As well, I used the thorough website of the Italian National Registry (http://bit.ly/1Q7IqE7) for photos & other information.

Here is what i call “comfort wine”, beautifully paired w/ a rack of lamb this evening… Exactly at the moment when I like my wines aged, velvety but still firm, still fruity but mellowed w/ a touch of leather, game, & tobacco. Caressing texture w/ a bit of grip. Lip-smacking finish… Impossible to resist another glass…

A visit at Ca' del Bosco was the cherry on top. But the core of the visit was a fabulous tasting of 18 different sparkling wines made in the traditional method from this wonderful region of Northern Italy.

I am so bored of bloggers who, when writing about wine, especially about Italian wine, always take the moral high ground from their pedestal and use controversy in order to push for their own agenda and attract attention to themselves.Here is an opinion piece by Jeremy Parzen that is distorted and misrepresentative.

Leonardo Mustilli of the high quality Cantine Mustilli was the 1st to bottle a monovarietal Falanghina wine... His best is "Vigna Segreta"...

Falanghina is a very ancient grape that was probably brought by the greeks in the olden days. Some say its name come from the latin "phalanga", the word to describe wooden poles the greeks used for wine training. It almost came to extinction in Campania until Leonardo Mustilli decided in 1979 to seriously consider how to make fine wines out of the grape. Since, several producers have caught on and planted the grapes in various terroir around the region producing some very interesting and rewarding whites.

Many questions of the MW (now) paper 4 on business are focused on topics along the lines of: "what can be done to revitalize this or that segment of the wine industry". As the wine industry is sooo conservative, surely, one of the key answer must be: INNOVATE.

Actually for me, the real beauty of this wine is in its spirit, it is a wine about a family, about a land, and about the circle of life. When he created “Dino”, Giovanni Manetti did not only create a new wine for Fontondi, he created a tribute. Named in honor of his father who passed away in the early 2000, it links the winery back to its roots. where it all began.